“China is committed to promote high-level opening up, and will carry out negotiations, on the premise of upholding our own security and development benefits, based on our own pace, and take efforts with the European side to reach a comprehensive, balanced and high-level investment deal,” it said.

Time is running out for the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, which has been seven years in the making, with a deal-or-no-deal deadline of the end of the year, amid rising pressure from European politicians over human rights issues.

The ministry statement said the deal would deepen bilateral trade and economic cooperation, but also carry significance to the global economic recovery.

Soon after Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Monday played up the prospects that the deal was likely to be wrapped up soon, politicians from EU member states talked up the possibility of dropping the deal without Beijing’s commitment to end alleged forced labour in Xinjiang – which Beijing denies exists.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang reached out to Spain and the Netherlands for their support for the deal.

Beijing and Brussels have been at loggerheads over alleged human rights issues in Hong Kong and Xinjiang for months, which have also weighed in the investment deal talks as the European Parliament pushed for a strong package of sustainable development.

Chinese pundits said Beijing had made concessions on market access and fair competition to the European side and was ready to improve labour rights protection. They also noted the EU was facing pressure from both within the bloc and the US, amid concerns that a deal would hand diplomatic leverage to Beijing.

“Both EU and China need the deal, which would unleash economic potential, facilitate the formation of international norms of new industries, and the reform of the World Trade Organization,” said Wang Yiwei, a professor in European studies with Renmin University.

“There are many different voices inside the EU that have disturbed the talks,” he said.